The interactive effect of no-tillage and liming on gross N transformation rates during the summer fallow in an acid Mediterranean soil

Abstract

In the Mediterranean rainfed agriculture, a summer fallow is necessary because of the severe drought and high temperatures. Due to suppressed plant nitrogen (N) uptake during this period, an accumulation of inorganic N in the soil may occur, which could be lost from the system during the first autumn rains. Both mineralization and nitrification rates can be affected by agricultural practices, such as tillage or liming, influencing the amount of available N present in the soil during the fallow period. In this study, we investigated the effects of two common agricultural practices, no-tillage (instead of traditional tillage) and liming, on soil gross N transformations during the summer fallow. Liming increased gross N mineralization (from 1.21 to 1.78 mg N kg−1 day−1) and gross nitrification (from 0.44 to 0.76 mg N kg−1 day−1) while traditional tillage increased N immobilization. Tillage did not affect gross nitrification but the effect of liming on gross N mineralization was enhanced in no-tillage plots. The total bacteria abundance was enhanced by liming and no-tillage and seemed to be responsible for gross N mineralization and immobilization. The gross mineralization, nitrification and microbial immobilization decreased during the summer fallow with an overall reduction by 40%, 56%, 74% and 54% in gross N mineralization, gross nitrification, ammonium immobilization and nitrate immobilization, respectively. The accumulation of ammonium could be interpreted as a consequence of the decoupling between ammonium production and consumption rates. The increase of gross N mineralization and nitrification caused by liming application could result in augmented risks of N losses via nitrate leaching and gaseous losses in autumn, especially under no-tillage. However further studies are required to elucidate the nitrate fate of the in Mediterranean agricultural soils under those management practices.